The Sandhills

The Sands of the Kalahari, The Desert Fox, High Plains Drifter - These are just a few of the 'role' model movies we had growing up in a small rural town in North Dakota by the name of New Leipzig. What makes these three unique is they all involve desert filming.

We didn't have deserts in New Leipzig - not even close. But we did have the Sandhills, our own little enclave of sand formations and sandy ground in between those formations where we played as kids, and took on roles we saw in movies, and, yes, even some on television (we're not THAT old, don'tcha know).

It took quite an effort to find the Sandhills on Google Maps, but it's there:

That's the Cannonball River to the left of our little 'movie set'. This image doesn't even show Highway 49 off to the right, but it's there, too.

For anyone wanting to visit the site on Google Maps, you can do so by following this link:

Sandhills of New Leipzig

For the uninitiated, the Sandhills of New Leipzig aren't the Sandhills of Nebraska by any stretch of the imagination. Nor are they the Kalahari Desert, the Sahara Desert, The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado, or any of a number of deserts in our U.S. Southwest so many of us are familiar with from both movies and TV. In fact, they really aren't 'hills' either....more of a small canyon, actually. But they were magical to us - they 'became' those famous and infamous deserts in our active imaginations, and that's really all that matters.

They're on private property, but that didn't ever stop us, as kids, from visiting and exploring their wonders, their own kind of splendor, their own kind of mythical romance. We made up our own ghosts, our own legends, our own characters, our own games with unmatched enthusiasm and imagination. And those hills were a LOT bigger to all of us as children than they are now to us as adults - that's for sure.

The games we played often times spilled over onto the rather steep incline at the 'mouth' of the formation down to the Cannonball River far below. Well, maybe not so terribly far, but far enough to let us imagine it was a virtually unscalable cliff which meant certain death if we slipped or lost a foothold or handhold.

After our death defying descent to the stream below, into the trees along the riverbanks we would go, their shade providing a reprieve from the hot desert sun burning, searing ever present overhead, carrying our imaginations with us, extending our games into more hospitable environs, oases if you will, as we went.

The climb back up just as arduous and dangerous as the descent, we'd eventually reach the mouth of the hills, themselves. Sort of like entering the Hole in the Wall in Wyoming. The problem then became one of whether we were the 'good guys' or the 'bad guys' - each fraught with their own individual advantages and dangers.

These games were never ending - that is until it was time to hit the hot dusty trail back to our homes in New Leipzig, a mere two miles distant. Doggone parents! They said to be home by a certain time, and, by golly, we ALWAYS listened!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate any photos taken down in this natural wonder. If anyone else has some, please consider sharing, and I'll post them in this blog.

Well, ask and you shall receive....

Photo Credit: Ross Pastian, New Leipzig High School, Class of '63'

Photo Credit, Timothy Hertz, New Leipzig High School, Class of '63'

Some very special memories.....